This is very exciting! I was wondering though, if there is a free service like this open to student groups, why not also allow EAs to order one or more of these books for themselves for free? There’s probably a way to vet whether a person is highly engaged enough and worth giving one or more of these books to. I’d love to get printed copies of some or all of these 23 books.
Btw, “80,000 Hours Key Ideas” was listed as two separate options in the form—you might want to fix that. Also, 80K’s Key Ideas has a book version already, or is that their 2017 Career Guide?
Seems like they’ve changed the form to be the 2017 career guide.
It might also be worth noting that some of the books on the list have a track record of getting great people into EA, while most of them don’t. I expect the EV of getting someone to read DGB or the Precipice is over 10x the EV of many of the other books on the list.
I think the ROI for existing EAs is far lower, since they are already engaged, and less likely to increase engagement because they got a book—though I’d also love free books.
The ROI for existing EAs is far lower if the EA doesn’t lend out or gift away the book afterwards. If they lend it out or gift it away, then the ROI becomes similar. I’ll probably be lending out the books afterward, so the ROI should be similar.
It makes sense to target people who are newer to EA, but I think a non-biased case could still be made for allowing even engaged EAs to get free books. I don’t have the time to try making that case though right now.
Since you are a group organiser you most certainly can get funding through CEA for all 23 books (for your own learning + I suspect you won’t be able to help yourself lending them out to group members too!) - Happy to help! - Catherine
This is very exciting! I was wondering though, if there is a free service like this open to student groups, why not also allow EAs to order one or more of these books for themselves for free? There’s probably a way to vet whether a person is highly engaged enough and worth giving one or more of these books to. I’d love to get printed copies of some or all of these 23 books.
Btw, “80,000 Hours Key Ideas” was listed as two separate options in the form—you might want to fix that. Also, 80K’s Key Ideas has a book version already, or is that their 2017 Career Guide?
Seems like they’ve changed the form to be the 2017 career guide.
It might also be worth noting that some of the books on the list have a track record of getting great people into EA, while most of them don’t. I expect the EV of getting someone to read DGB or the Precipice is over 10x the EV of many of the other books on the list.
I think the ROI for existing EAs is far lower, since they are already engaged, and less likely to increase engagement because they got a book—though I’d also love free books.
The ROI for existing EAs is far lower if the EA doesn’t lend out or gift away the book afterwards. If they lend it out or gift it away, then the ROI becomes similar. I’ll probably be lending out the books afterward, so the ROI should be similar.
It makes sense to target people who are newer to EA, but I think a non-biased case could still be made for allowing even engaged EAs to get free books. I don’t have the time to try making that case though right now.
Since you are a group organiser you most certainly can get funding through CEA for all 23 books (for your own learning + I suspect you won’t be able to help yourself lending them out to group members too!) - Happy to help!
- Catherine
Thanks Catherine! Yep I can lend them out to group members. I’ll probably email or Slack you to ask more details about this soon!